Ahh nice article - a return to the good old days..! We should have a yearly 'Mindful Day' with no internet and no social media. Imagine all those little jobs that would get done around the house. Perhaps take an hour to just sit, relax and read a physical book. It's nice to dream... (he says, getting anxious noticing his phone battery on 12%).
Home Assistant will connect directly (not via cloud) to many smart devices, which might be worth a look. I know it will talk directly to my inverter and my ASHP, as well as all my smart plugs and assorted widgetry, so I plan to "get my geek on" in the new year.
Often, apps are just mini websites that send remote commands to the cloud which then has the internet link from your smart devices it can talk to. Instead, I'd also prefer a local control system with buttons, lights and dials, rather than fannying around with 20 apps.
I also suffer from battery storage anxiety when the tenuous 2.4ghz Wi-Fi link sometimes doesn't reach the inverter so it goes offline in the app. But it carries on working with its stored configuration, I just can't see it working...!
In light of this revelation, please please please can you consider the "offline ability" of any cars and tech that you review? There are initiatives to disconnect smart tech eg LocalTuya for Tuya-based smartplugs which normally need a broadband connection to China to turn on a light.
As far as power cuts go, I can't believe that cookers for one thing need to have the time reset before the hobs will work. Same with pump and boiler timers. Really! We have four holiday let's and have to knock on doors to reset ovens first thing in the mornings after a power cut, that can be three time a week in the winter!
One more for Starlink, complete game changer, it was worth it to tell the OpenReach salesman who tried at length to sell me on a Fibre Lease line at £360 per month. So chuffed at myself for holding out for a good 15 minutes before telling him! 3 to 7 mbts otherwise! Openreach need to grilled in a public enquiry about how bad they are rolling out the unprofitable areas. Took the government subsidy and spunked it away on dividends.
Yes.I second the opinion regarding Starlink.We are on Starlink for over 2 years now and live in a street with 24 other houses.We can’t get anything above 38Mbits as tested by several Openreach engineers because our cabling in the street is rubbish and made not from coaxial copper cable but aluminium or something else terrible.
So when Starlink came along we suddenly had 200mbits and were over the moon.The added benefit when the power went down recently due to the rubbish electric cable (again) laid 38 years ago when the street was first built is rotting and so far we had 26 power cuts in a few weeks.Now Northern Powergrid is laying a new cable finally as a priority to all the houses.But the results we’re that because of Starlink and our two Powerwall batteries we were never without power and never without Internet! Starlink is all
Powered by us and only if the Satelites fall out of the sky we worry about it and then we have to worry about other things far more urgently than Internet connectivity!
I’ll get in here first and say “Starlink” but I think I’d like the temporary freedom from the linked world more. I’m not 100 percent sure but I think you can log onto your Tesla on its local wifi network.
Ahh nice article - a return to the good old days..! We should have a yearly 'Mindful Day' with no internet and no social media. Imagine all those little jobs that would get done around the house. Perhaps take an hour to just sit, relax and read a physical book. It's nice to dream... (he says, getting anxious noticing his phone battery on 12%).
Robert, you need Starlink for internet service!
Home Assistant will connect directly (not via cloud) to many smart devices, which might be worth a look. I know it will talk directly to my inverter and my ASHP, as well as all my smart plugs and assorted widgetry, so I plan to "get my geek on" in the new year.
Often, apps are just mini websites that send remote commands to the cloud which then has the internet link from your smart devices it can talk to. Instead, I'd also prefer a local control system with buttons, lights and dials, rather than fannying around with 20 apps.
I also suffer from battery storage anxiety when the tenuous 2.4ghz Wi-Fi link sometimes doesn't reach the inverter so it goes offline in the app. But it carries on working with its stored configuration, I just can't see it working...!
In light of this revelation, please please please can you consider the "offline ability" of any cars and tech that you review? There are initiatives to disconnect smart tech eg LocalTuya for Tuya-based smartplugs which normally need a broadband connection to China to turn on a light.
As far as power cuts go, I can't believe that cookers for one thing need to have the time reset before the hobs will work. Same with pump and boiler timers. Really! We have four holiday let's and have to knock on doors to reset ovens first thing in the mornings after a power cut, that can be three time a week in the winter!
One more for Starlink, complete game changer, it was worth it to tell the OpenReach salesman who tried at length to sell me on a Fibre Lease line at £360 per month. So chuffed at myself for holding out for a good 15 minutes before telling him! 3 to 7 mbts otherwise! Openreach need to grilled in a public enquiry about how bad they are rolling out the unprofitable areas. Took the government subsidy and spunked it away on dividends.
Yes.I second the opinion regarding Starlink.We are on Starlink for over 2 years now and live in a street with 24 other houses.We can’t get anything above 38Mbits as tested by several Openreach engineers because our cabling in the street is rubbish and made not from coaxial copper cable but aluminium or something else terrible.
So when Starlink came along we suddenly had 200mbits and were over the moon.The added benefit when the power went down recently due to the rubbish electric cable (again) laid 38 years ago when the street was first built is rotting and so far we had 26 power cuts in a few weeks.Now Northern Powergrid is laying a new cable finally as a priority to all the houses.But the results we’re that because of Starlink and our two Powerwall batteries we were never without power and never without Internet! Starlink is all
Powered by us and only if the Satelites fall out of the sky we worry about it and then we have to worry about other things far more urgently than Internet connectivity!
I’ll get in here first and say “Starlink” but I think I’d like the temporary freedom from the linked world more. I’m not 100 percent sure but I think you can log onto your Tesla on its local wifi network.